Groklaw is reporting that the European Commission has managed to force through the Software Patents Directive as an “uncontested” A item despite various countries attempts to contest it and European Parliament (the bit that people get to vote for) voting for it to be completely restarted.
If the European Parliament doesn’t throw it out then it will become law in 12 months and allow monopolists a new tool to stifle European innovation. 🙁
There’s a further twist to the S.A. MP story being reported by the ABC news and others..
It used to be that the ABC News RSS feeds were only available by subscription, but it looks now like they’ve groked the RSS mindset and made them publically available here for non-commercial use. The reason that I’ve said they’re the official ones is that some folks got fed up at waiting for the ABC to "get it" and made their own via screen scraping.
I’ve added their breaking news RSS feed as a block just below the BBC news feed on the left.
Jan Englend, the UN’s emergency relief coordinator, has called for nations to support the peace deal in Sudan by delivering the estimated $500 million needed for the rebuilding. So far only 5% of this, $24 million, has been paid for a region where the average life expectancy is 42.
He is quoted as saying that "I fear the world is making a historic mistake here in southern Sudan", referring to the lack of support for returning refugees and for those who remained during the recent conflict.
ZDNet has a blog entry about who is the leader of open source which makes a good fist of explaining why there is no leader and that this is a good thing.
I couldn’t resist drawing the following comparison (posted on ZDNet here).
The inability of some sections of the population to grasp how Open Source doesn’t have a leader reminds me of Monty Python and the Holy Grail where King Arthur has a similar problem..
ARTHUR: Then who is your lord?
WOMAN: We don’t have a lord.
ARTHUR: What?
DENNIS: I told you. We’re an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week,…
This lack of a single focal point is actually a strength, there is, as you put it, no single person who can fall under that hypothetical bus and whose loss will render the movement powerless. Of course we would mourn the loss of any of them, but there’ll always be plenty to stand up and take their place.
We’d have to put up a giant penguin statue if Linus bit the dust though.. 🙂
There’s quite a bit of reporting that a study on the incidence of autism in Yokohama found that after the MMR was withdrawn across Japan in 1993 the rate of Autism doubled, meaning that there cannot be a causal link between the MMR and the large rise in cases of Autism.
Of course, this does not say that there cannot be individual cases caused by MMR, perhaps due to an underlying immune condition that means the body cannot cope with it!
Here’s a nice one, courtesy of Rich Boakes, the all purpose greetings card for any occasion!
Look at the PNG version.
According to the new
8K filed at the SEC
On February 28, 2005, on management’s recommendation, the
Audit Committee of the Board of Directors of The SCO Group,
Inc. (the “Company”) concluded, and KPMG LLP, the Company’s
independent auditors agreed, that, due to certain
accounting errors, the Company’s financial statements for
the quarters ending January 31, 2004, April 30, 2004 and
July 31, 2004 should no longer be relied upon and should be
restated.
Specifically
For the first, second and third quarters, the Company
expects to reclassify amounts related to certain shares of
common stock that the Company may have issued under its
equity compensation plans without complying with the
registration requirements of federal and applicable state
securities laws from permanent equity to temporary equity
in the amounts of approximately $272,000, $231,000, and
$557,000, respectively. The Company may make a rescission
offer to holders of certain shares and expects an amount to
be classified as temporary equity until the completion of a
rescission offer or until the Company no longer has an
obligation to the holders of such shares.
For the first quarter and the second quarter, the Company
expects to reclassify accrued dividends related to the
Company’s previously issued Series A and Series A-1
Convertible Preferred Stock from equity to current
liabilities in the amounts of approximately $879,000 and
$1,619,000, respectively. In October 2003, the Company
issued shares of Series A Convertible Preferred Stock in
connection with its $50,000,000 private placement, which
shares were subsequently exchanged for and replaced with
shares of Series A-1 Convertible Preferred Stock. When the
Company repurchased all outstanding shares of Series A-1
Convertible Preferred Stock in July 2004, the Company’s
obligation to pay dividends on such shares terminated. The
accrued dividends were never paid and ultimately were
recorded in equity upon the completion of the repurchase
transaction. In addition, the dividends were properly
captured in the calculation of earnings per share in the
periods above.
For the first and second quarter, the Company expects to
restate approximately $233,000 of stock-based compensation
expense which was recorded in the second quarter, but
incurred in the first quarter. There will be no change to
the total stock-based compensation expense for the fiscal
year ended October 31, 2004.
Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear..
I think I’ve found what is probably the most useful web page in existence. Read it and obey..
Looks like Police in South Australia are discounting the story about a politician being involved in paedophilia and murder.
